Centre and PeripheryThis chapter aims to give an overview of the developments of the Venetian fiscal system between the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. Such developments, although an integral part of the process of the gradual emergence all over Europe of the modern fiscal state, are nevertheless remarkably localized in their specifics. Particular attention will be paid to local taxation, which on account of its heterogeneous characteristics is often overlooked when attempting a synthesis, but is crucial to understanding the sources available for the study of the distribution of property and wealth. Indeed, the local property tax records (estimi) are the main historical sources used in the chapters that follow.

Despite the laborious process of gathering the data and some limitations due to selective incompleteness, catasti and estimi (fiscal cadastres) provide precious information on demographic differences within Italy during the Late Middle Ages and early Modern Age. The authors compare three areas: the countryside surrounding Lucca in 1411 (Tuscany, 5,792 individuals) and Varese in 1530 (Lombardy, 2,703), and the ''quasi-city'' of Legnago in 1430 (Veneto, 2,101), reconsidering also the Florentine catasto of 1427. Family-type distribution, age at marriage, and residence after marriage are noticeably different, showing that the territorial diversity in family of nineteenthcentury Italy was already present four centuries earlier.

This article addresses the question of how exogenous shocks led to economic redistribution at a local rural community level in the pre-industrial period, and how inequality can be limited (or not) by institutions and endogenous social structures within the community itself. This article presents a micro-analytical study conducted mainly on unpublished sources, focusing on a boundary area (the Geradadda) disputed by Milan and Venice during the long period of the Italian Wars (1494-1559) in a broad European perspective. To understand the impact of wars, the management of local commons and communal assets is analysed in the more general context of the management of local finances. This research shows how local communities organized cooperative behaviours for the defence of local resources, developing innovative credit systems and encouraging a process of redistribution. Before other important factorssuch as the distribution of wealth or of local political and social power-cooperation between social groups and the role played by elites were the keystones to limiting the increase in inequality.O ver the last few years, renewed and growing international attention has been paid to the development over time of institutions for collective action and the management of commons in ancient societies.1 In this fairly new field of research, however, Renaissance Italy has been neglected, despite the fact that the Peninsula was the cradle of many of these institutions, at least concerning the origin of *